A little madness saves the day

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“The Madwoman of Chaillot”RCC

What are the chances humanity can be saved from greed and the addiction to oil by a band of vagabonds and a few madwomen? That is the quirky, surprisingly contemporary question posed in "The Madwoman of Chaillot," by Jean Giraudoux.

The Theatre Arts Program at Rogue Community College in Medford is producing Giraudoux's classic play at RCC's Warehouse theater at Eighth and Bartlett streets.

RCC Theatre Arts' John Cole says Giraudoux, writing in 1943, during the German occupation of France, seems to have seen the future.

"He was prescient," he says. "He must have understood the way the world works."

The playwright conceived of a world in which corporate presidents, discovering oil below a café in Paris, decide to level the City of Light to bring the oil to the surface. Up against the powerful corporate evildoers is a band of rag-tag street people.

The play presents plenty of parallels to our own time, Cole says. A world in which materialism is not merely rampant, it's in the driver's seat. An economy in which oil companies will stop at nothing to service the world's addiction. Enron-like executives who can no longer say exactly what the product is that their company actually produces.

A character who figures if the government frustrates you, you just blow up a government building.

The Madwoman — more an eccentric than a lunatic — is known as "the Countess" to her band of misfits, street people, flower girls and ragpickers, and it's to her that the job of saving Paris falls.

Jennifer Phillips, of Jacksonville, plays The Madwoman of Chaillot, who is also known as Countess Aurelia. Kate Lundquist is the Madwoman of Passy. Ally Kimberling is The Madwoman of St. Sulpice. Myriah McMillin is The Madwoman of La Concorde. Kelley Dixon, of Medford, is the Ragpicker.

Cole and co-director John Danko say RCC theater students faced formidable obstacles in putting on the show. Most in the large, ensemble cast have full-time jobs. Some are single parents. Many had little or no acting experience.

The play is being presented in a converted furniture warehouse where students have had to set up and tear down the stage for every rehearsal so other students can use the space.

Makeup is by students from a local cosmetology school. Dixon plays the Ragpicker but also did the sound design.

"It's kind of an impossible dream," Cole says. "But the students believe in it so deeply. Their commitment is uncommon. They schedule their lives around it."

Danko says having two directors can be challenging in terms of coming up with a unified vision, but it helps in confronting the sheer scope of mounting a large production with inexperienced actors under challenging conditions.

"There's a lot of give and take," Danko says. "I've directed more than 100 plays but never co-directed until I came here. We have things that we discuss, and we adapt.

"We're talking about 25 students, most of whom have never been on the stage. It's an enormous task. It takes two. We're happy. We have challenged these people in doing this show in the round. We've worked a long time."

He thinks the result will be an audience pleaser.

"It's got message," he says, "but it's playful enough."

It's probably a good idea to get tickets in advance, since RCC's Medford productions in previous years have sold out.

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